Tucker Carlson's descent into white supremacy: A timeline

Since the early days of his tenure as a Fox prime-time host, Tucker Carlson’s unabashed championing of white grievances earned him the accolades[1] of neo-Nazis, who praised him as a “one man gas chamber” and complimented the way he “lampshad[ed] Jews on national television.” While Carlson claims to have nothing in common[2] with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, he constantly echoes[3]their[4]talking points[5] on his show and was very reluctant to condemn white supremacists following their deadly 2017 demonstration in Charlottesville, VA. In fact, Carlson’s racist roots can be traced back more than a decade.

Here’s a timeline of the public devolution of Tucker Carlson’s thinly veiled racism into full-throated white supremacy (this list will be continually updated):

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

July 6, 2007[6]: Carlson said President Barack Obama “sounds like a pothead.” During his tenure as a host on MSNBC, Carlson discussed a speech then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) gave during his first presidential campaign, asking, “How high is this guy?” and if “he always talks between bong hits.”

August 24, 2007[7]: Carlson called the NAACP "a sad joke that should be shut down.” Carlson discussed former NFL player Michael Vick’s guilty plea to dogfighting charges and asserted that the NAACP was defending Vick. Carlson called the organization “a sad joke that should be shut down, I think, immediately for the sake of everybody.”

January 11, 2010[8]: Carlson said that when Democrats say then-Sen. Harry Reid supports civil rights, "what they're saying is he's for racial set-asides.” While criticizing Democrats who defended then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) after he made racist remarks about Obama[9], Carlson claimed on Fox News Reid supported “racial set-asides.” During a guest appearance on Fox News’ Happening Now, Carlson said, “I’m amazed by the number of Democrats, though, you hear saying, ‘We support Reid because he supports civil rights,’ as if his opponents don’t support civil rights, as if there’s any mainstream figure in American life who’s against civil rights. Everybody’s for civil rights. What they’re saying is he’s for racial set-asides, therefore, given that pay-off he gets a pass when he uses the phrase ‘Negro dialect.’”

April 27, 2010[10]: Carlson said Obama was “using racial anxiety” similar to “Nixon’s Southern strategy” for “political gain.” Carlson claimed that a video message from Obama should be interpreted as him saying, “You have reason to fear on racial grounds, therefore vote for me.”

July 20, 2010[11]: Carlson said Rev. Jeremiah Wright was the “one story” that could’ve destroyed Obama and compared Wright to a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Carlson told Fox’s Sean Hannity that the ABC News story[12] that revealed that sermons of Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, included incendiary remarks about terrorist attacks in the United States, was Obama’s “Achilles’ heel” and “that’s why they decided to lie about it.” He then decried nonexistent double standards by saying, “Had this been a white Republican consorting with a [KKK] Grand Dragon,” the press would have covered that story more than they did Wright’s sermons.

September 6, 2010[13]: Carlson claimed the NAACP is “totally discredited, some would say pathetic.” During a segment on Fox & Friends about the NAACP sponsoring a website that monitored the conservative Tea Party movement for racism and extremism, the host asked Carlson: “Is there some political gain by proving that there is racism amongst the Tea Party? ... There has to be toward some end.” Carlson responded, “The end is keeping Democrats in power.” He went on to refer to the NAACP as “totally discredited, some would say pathetic.”

April 6, 2013[14]: Carlson said that a Phoenix, AZ, diversity program was informed by “the same rationale that propped up Jim Crow for 80 years.” While hosting Fox’s Fox & Friends Saturday, Carlson claimed an initiative by the city of Phoenix, AZ, that looked to hire more minorities as lifeguards was done “in the service of the diversity cult.” He also asserted that the city’s intentions of hiring more lifeguards from the same minority communities who usually swam in the public pools was “the same rationale that propped up Jim Crow for 80 years, right? You want to swim in a pool with people that look like you.”

November 2, 2014[15]: Carlson advocated for “an older white guy-appreciation day.” While discussing the 2014 midterm elections, Carlson noted that white men had “done a lot for this country,” speaking “as one of them.” Carlson advocated for “an older white guy-appreciation day,” naming penicillin as an example of their contributions.

May 19, 2015[16]: Carlson told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that the Obama administration was pushing “Nazi” politics. During a guest appearance on The Alex Jones Show, Carlson told host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that the Obama administration was engaging in "Nazi stuff" by using ethnic politics.

May 29, 2015[17]: Carlson called the relocation of a statue at St. Louis University that depicted Native Americans kneeling to a white missionary an “act of racism.” On Fox’s Fox & Friends, Carlson criticized the relocation and called the statue’s detractors “wholly ignorant.”

September 13, 2015[18]: Carlson said CBS late night host Stephen Colbert wearing a Black Lives Matter wristband showed “he’s so rich, famous celebrity guy so totally out of touch, he doesn’t fully understand what that represents.” During the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, Carlson criticized Colbert’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and suggested Colbert supports the “idea behind all the groups … that you divide people on the basis of their skin color and say, ‘This one group of people’s lives matter.’ Everybody’s life matters. Period.”

October 21, 2015[19]: Carlson said that then-candidate Donald Trump is the “embodiment” of the “frustrations” of those who are labeled “racist” or “nativist” but have “legitimate” anti-immigration concerns. In an appearance on Courtside Entertainment Group’s The Laura Ingraham Show, Carlson defended then-candidate Donald Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, saying that if “legitimate” extreme anti-immigration views are not allowed “to be aired, they will pop up in some other place. They don't go away, they're not resolved.” He also said that the Republicans were lucky that Trump was all they got, and not a modern-day equivalent to segregationist 1960s Alabama governor and failed presidential candidate George Wallace.

August 8, 2016[20]: Carlson attacked the Black and Hispanic Journalists Associations. While co-hosting the Sunday, August 6, edition of Fox & Friends, Carlson said “if you take three steps back,” journalist associations for minority groups are “kind of a little odd,” and questioned why journalists should “coalesce around a racial identity.” He also wondered if it was ironic that then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton -- who spoke to the members of the journalistic associations -- was “accusing her opponent of racism while speaking to a racially exclusive group.”

August 29, 2016[21]: Carlson responded to NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s protests against police brutality by asking, “When did rich people become victims?” While discussing Kaepernick, Carlson also accused Oprah Winfrey and Obama of identifying as “victims” and suggested, “The next time some overpaid entertainer or athlete or politician stands up and says, ‘boohoo, people are mean to me because of x, y, and z,’ laugh in their face, including this guy.”

September 27, 2016[22]: Tucker Carlson claimed that it was “absurd” of Hillary Clinton to point out implicit racial bias. On Fox & Friends, Carlson denied that racism is still a big issue in America by calling a comment by Clinton about implicit bias in the U.S.[23] “absurd” and claiming that we should “be adults” instead of acting like “America is still in 1955.”

November 17, 2016[24]: Carlson dismissed extremism by claiming that “the American Nazi Party and the KKK don’t really exist in a meaningful [way].” In a conversation with The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, Carlson said that “the American Nazi Party and the KKK don’t really exist in a meaningful [way]” and asserted that when critics “tie Trump supporters to those groups, that’s a slur.”

November 18, 2016[25]: Carlson reflexively defended then-Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions’ racist past. After then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was nominated to become Trump’s attorney general, Tucker told his guest that his concerns about Sessions’ record of racism[26] was “fearmongering” and that he couldn’t be racist because Alabama is a “diverse” state.

February 10, 2017[28]: Carlson complained that on college campuses “everybody gets a safe space except white men. They are hated and despised.” During his Fox show, Carlson interviewed then-Daily Caller columnist Scott Greer, author of the book No Campus for White Men, and claimed that creating safe spaces for marginalized groups demonstrates that “the hysteria level is rising.” The Daily Caller -- which Carlson co-founded -- fired Greer in 2018 after The Atlantic[29] revealed his ties to white nationalists and members of the “alt-right” like Richard Spencer.

March 8, 2017[30]: In an interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, Carlson dismissed Ramos’ opinion as a Hispanic American by claiming Ramos looks “whiter than I am.” Carlson demanded that Ramos explain his statement in reference to immigrants that the United States is “our country.” Ramos explained that he meant that “the Trump administration and many people who support Donald Trump, they think it is their country, that it is a white country and they are absolutely wrong. … Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, whites, it is our country, Tucker.” Carlson dismissed his response by commenting on his appearance, saying, “I don’t know exactly what you mean by white or Latino,” because “you are white, obviously, you’re whiter than I am. You’ve got blue eyes.”

March 13, 2017[31]: Carlson hosted Congressman and white supremacist Steve King and defended him after King received backlash for a racist tweet. Rep. Steve King[32] (R-IA) faced backlash when he tweeted[33] in support of right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, writing, “Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” Carlson hosted King on his show to defend his racist remarks and said to him, “Everything you said, I think, is defensible and probably right.” Carlson again invited King on his show later in July to talk about his proposal of defunding Planned Parenthood to build a wall[34] along the southern U.S. border. King has a history of elevating neo-Nazis[35] and known white supremacists on Twitter[36], and he has cited the white nationalist[37] publication VDare on his congressional website, .

April 3, 2017[38]: Carlson mocked the inclusion of women scientists of color in the March for Science meant that the organizers “hate white men more than they hate global warming.”

April 17, 2017[39]: While ranting about “more than 350,000 migrants” arriving in Europe, Carlson referred to the refugee influx as an “invasion” changing Europe’s demographics. Carlson reported that “more than 7,000 African migrants” had arrived in Italy in the days prior, and warned that “many of them will remain, some for generations, as beneficiaries of European welfare states.” He said that the refugees arrived “without invitation illegally and at public expense” and fearmongered that they would “forever and profoundly change the demographics of the continent in ways that pretty much nobody who was born there ever asked for or wanted.”

May 3, 2017[40]: Carlson stated he was “pretty sympathetic” to the “alt-right,” anti-Semite troll known online as “Baked Alaska.” While interviewing Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith, Carlson said that he was “pretty sympathetic” to former Buzzfeed employee turned “alt-right” troll[41] Tim Gionet, who is known online as “Baked Alaska.” After quitting Buzzfeed, Gionet claimed that Jews control the media, went on to participate[42] in the 2017 “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, and started a YouTube live stream show in which he hosted neo-Nazis[43] and white supremacists[44].

May 10, 2017:[45] Carlson falsely claimed that a racist Texas voter ID law that several courts found to be discriminatory against minority voters had “nothing to do with race.” Carlson tried to defend the 2011 Texas voter ID law SB 14, claiming it had “nothing to do with race.”However, several courts found[46] the law not only discriminated against minority voters but also was created with the “intent to discriminate against minority voters.” In 2016, a federal appeals court explained[47] that under the law, Black voters would be “1.78 times more likely than Whites, and Latinos 2.42 times more likely, to lack” the ID required to vote.

May 30, 2017[48]: Carlson took issue with media portraying a murderer from Portland, OR, as a white supremacist. Carlson reacted to the news[49] that a man, after berating Muslims on a train in Portland, OR, had stabbed two bystanders who tried to contain him by saying the perpetrator “hardly” exhibited “the behavior of a coherent white supremacist,” and that media, “like progressives everywhere, ... see racists under every bed.”

June 26, 2017[50]: Carlson defended Trump’s Muslim ban[51] by asserting “it doesn’t ban Muslims.” As Carlson’s guest explained, “The six countries that it banned, the only thing that they have in common is they are majority Muslim countries.

June 26, 2017[52]: Carlson lashed out after Alaska renamed Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day, calling it an “attack on civilization.” Carlson said the refusal “to commemorate the discovery of the New World by Europeans” was absurd and that colonization led to “more human freedom and happiness” and “far less human sacrifice and cannibalism.”

June 29, 2017[53]: Carlson claimed that “the left” calls Trump vulgar, even though the liberals “applauded when Obama vacationed with rappers.” Carlson claimed that the left hated President Donald Trump not because “he’s vulgar, though he is,” but “because he’s a nationalist who says the interests of America and its people ought to come first.” As evidence, Carlson cited that “the left” had “applauded when Barack Obama vacationed with rappers.”

July 10, 2017[54]: After asking if “the Western civilization” was “superior” than the cultures of Middle Eastern immigrants coming to the United States, Carlson denied even knowing “what ‘white nationalist’ means.” Carlson engaged in a screaming match with guest Brad Woodhouse and suggested immigrants were bringing “sharia law” and dismissed Woodhouse’s argument that people writing Trump’s speeches have white nationalist ties, saying, “I don’t even know what ‘white nationalist’ means.”

July 17, 2017[55]: Carlson used the slur “gypsies” and claimed that Roma immigrants have “little regard for either the law or public decency.” Carlson hyped reports that a group of Roma asylum seekers were settling in Pennsylvania and “integration is not going well” because “citizens say they defecate in public, chop the heads off chickens, leave trash everywhere, and more.” He complained, “This has been a distinct group for a thousand years that actually hasn’t assimilated, for the most part, into the cultures in which it’s been hosted.” The Roma, who Carlson referred to as “gypsies,” were a target[56] of the Nazi ethnic cleansing project.

August 15, 2017[57]: Carlson objected to the push to remove Confederate statues comparing it to the extremism of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and Mao in China. A day after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, Carlson hosted a segment on the issue of removing Confederate statues from public spaces and accused activists of “trying to delegitimize the U.S. government and the traditions of American society because they don't believe in them.”

August 15, 2017[58]: Carlson attempted to minimize America’s history of slavery by pointing out that Aztecs, Africans and Mohammed had slaves too. A day after the Charlottesville rally, Carlson tried to minimize the impact of American slavery by saying we shouldn’t “judge the past by the standards of the present.”

August 16, 2017[59]: Carlson attacked tech companies for banning white supremacists from their platforms. Two days after the Charlottesville rally, Carlson said tech companies banning white supremacists from using their platforms should be “brought to heel” and called them “far less trustworthy” than the monopolies of the Gilded Age. He also fearmongered that tech companies -- not white supremacists -- “could make this country a place you would not want to live.”

August 24, 2017[60]: Carlson said NFL players “hate your country” because of their protests against “racism or something.” Carlson characterized NFL players kneeling during national anthem[61] to protest systematic racial injustice[62] as “many of the league’s richest players” going “out of their way to let you know how much they hate your country.” He also dismissively mentioned the reasons behind the protests as “racism or something.”

August 31, 2017[63]: After the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a list of Confederate monuments in the country, Carlson lashed out and accused the center of threatening violence. In reaction to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s press release calling for Confederate monuments to be taken down, Carlson said, “That sounds like a threat to me.”

September 5, 2017[64]: Carlson went to bat for Gab, a social media site dubbed a “haven for white nationalists.” Carlson hosted Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a social media app that has been described[65] as a “haven for white nationalists” and a “magnet for the alt-right.” Carlson defended the app and joined Torba in attacking Google and Apple for removing it for promoting “hate speech,” while conveniently ignoring the extremist content[66] that proliferates on Gab[67].

September 7, 2017[68]: Carlson’s proposed solution to California’s overcrowded prisons was deportation. During a conversation about California’s mass incarceration system, Carlson repeatedly inquired “what percentage of its inmates are foreign nationals” and suggested deportation as a solution to overcrowding.

September 11, 2017[69]: Carlson claimed that the lesson of the September 11 terror attacks is that “not all cultures are equal.” In commemorating the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Carlson said that the “first” lesson to learn is that “not all cultures are equal” and that the United States must “treasure and try to preserve” that which makes it “distinct.”

September 18, 2017[70]: Carlson claimed that striving for diversity “gets you to civil war.” During a discussion of the 2017 Emmy awards ceremony, Carlson bizarrely attacked actress and director Issa Rae for saying she was rooting for Black people to win, saying that is “opposite of diversity." Carlson also claimed that advocating for diversity in entertainment “gets you to civil war.”

September 20, 2017[71]: Carlson lashed out after Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) linked former Chairman of Breitbart News Steve Bannon to racism. Carlson defended Breitbart News from accusations of racism by saying he reads it and knows “most people who work over there” and they aren’t “Klansmen.” Breitbart has a history of employing extremists[72], including former tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who used to run drafts of some Breitbart content by white nationalists[73] for feedback.

September 20, 2017[74]: Carlson told a Black guest he understood the struggle with racism because “I'm an American.” While hand-wringing over a children’s football team taking a knee during the national anthem to show solidarity with NFL athletes protesting police brutality, Carlson told guest Freddie Mitchell, a former NFL player who is Black, that oppression of African-Americans in America “is an overstatement.”

September 26, 2017[75]: Carlson had a meltdown after a Black guest pointed out Carlson wouldn’t understand what it's like to be “brutalized” by police, accused him of playing “the victim card.” Carlson accused his guest Scott Bolden, a Black lawyer, of playing “the victim card” for talking about his personal experience with police brutality. Carlson also claimed that saying there are racially two Americas was “garbage”.

October 19, 2017[76]: Carlson defended Trump from charges of racism against Puerto Ricans because “Puerto Rico is 75 percent white, according to the U.S. Census.” Carlson characterized as “unfounded” the charges that the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was racist. Carlson added that “the race angle” bothered him because “it makes people hate each other, and it’s just stupid.”

October 25, 2017[78]: Carlson cited changing European demographics and immigration to justify the rise of white nationalism. Carlson blamed immigration to the U.S. and to European countries for creating a “volatile society,” and claimed white backlash was a result of not giving people who don’t like it “a chance to weigh-in”. He also dismissed the rise in white nationalism and characterized his guest’s argument warning against it “fearmongering” and “hysterical and silly.”

October 31, 2017[79]: Carlson baselessly characterized terrorism as something that “seems obviously tied to immigration.” Carlson asserted that immigration is fueling a rise in terrorism and questioned why the U.S. refuses to have a conversation about it.

November 1, 2017[80]: Carlson referred to the victims of a New York terrorist attack as “martyrs to a diversity cult worshiped by our ruling class.” In response to a deadly terror attack[81] in New York City allegedly carried out by an immigrant who came to the U.S. on a diversity visa, Carlson claimed the victims were “martyrs to a diversity cult worshiped by our ruling class” and accused “this country's leaders” of deciding “that diversity, in and of itself, is of greater importance than the well-being of this country's people.”

November 6, 2017[82]: Carlson smeared immigrants as criminals by portraying violent gangs like MS-13 as “one manifestation” of immigration. Carlson characterized immigration as “actually a threat” and suggested the brutal gang MS-13 was “one manifestation” of immigration. He justified this characterization, claiming, “There’s nothing racist about saying that.” Carlson conveniently ignored that “the attention that MS-13 has received is disproportionate to its impact”[83] and that the gang originated in the U.S. ProPublica’s Hannah Dreier, who has reported on the gang for over a year, has explained[84] that the gang focuses its terrorizing on “young Latino immigrants in a few specific communities.”

November 9, 2017[85]: Carlson referred to supporters of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA[86]) program protesting its termination as “a literal horde of illegal immigrants [who] stormed Capitol Hill today.” Carlson also wondered why elected leaders in the U.S. hate Americans so much as evidenced by the current immigration policies. Carlson complained that not enough arrests had been made, saying that “we don’t people in America” even if they engage in protests that are “illegal on about eight different levels.”

December 20, 2017[89]: Carlson fearmongered that Democrats want "demographic replacement" with a "flood of illegals" to create "a flood of voters for them." Carlson accused Democrats of having no interest in using immigration to better the country but wanting to build their own political base by bringing in a “flood of illegals.” He framed immigration as “demographic replacement,” echoing a white nationalist slogan[90] that perpetuates the baseless claim that there’s a “white genocide” underway[91].

January 3, 2018[96]: Carlson blamed articles about white privilege for people embracing white nationalism. Carlson contended that outlets like Buzzfeed and The Root are “promoting” white nationalism and acting in a bigoted manner by publishing articles that discuss white people as a group and not as individuals. Carlson told his audiences that such articles are “lecturing” white people and telling them they’re the problem “because of the color of your skin, and the privilege it conveys.”

January 17, 2018[99]: After a guest called out his racism, Carlson had a meltdown: "Up yours." As Chicago Alderman George Cardenas explained he represented everyone in his district regardless of their immigration status, Carlson had a meltdown and called him a “loathsome little demagogue.”

January 18, 2018[100]: Carlson attacked immigration and ethnic diversity for “radically and permanently changing our country." While slamming Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for saying “diversity is our strength,” Carlson questioned the value of diversity and claimed, “Our leaders are radically and permanently changing our country, wholly on the basis of their faith that diversity is, in fact, our strength.” He then said diversity would lead people to “hate each other.”

January 18, 2018[101]: A guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight defended white supremacists and claimed that Hispanics in Arizona represent the end of American society. While appearing as a guest on Carlson’s show, Mark Steyn -- who has also filled in as a guest host for Carlson on multiple[102]occasions[103] -- opined that Democratic leaders prefer “illegal immigrants … over American citizens.” While claiming to advocate for defending the interests of American citizens, Steyn went on to dismiss the threat of race extremism by saying that “white supremacists are American citizens” while “illegal immigrants are people who shouldn't be here.” He closed his appearance by fearmongering about the “cultural transformation” brought on by immigration, criticizing Arizona for having a majority of Hispanic grade school children. Carlson seemed to agree with every statement.

January 22, 2018[104]: Carlson attacked MSNBC's Joy Reid by accusing her of building her "entire public career” on “race-baiting." After Reid pointed out in her MSNBC show that Carlson’s genealogy included immigrants and that he had a “pretty blatantly white nationalist view of what immigration should be like,” Carlson accused her of “race-baiting” and said that calling his extreme anti-immigration immigration beliefs racist was an “attempt to short-circuit the conversation with slurs.”

January 26, 2018[105]: Carlson angrily denied that Trump's immigration plan is white nationalist while smearing non-white DACA recipients. Carlson took issue with criticisms that a Trump immigration proposal[106] had white supremacist elements, saying that “it definitely isn’t a form of white nationalism” because it would “legalize about 2 million people who currently have no right to be here” who are non-white (referring to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children[86]).

February 13, 2018[110]: Carlson and guest Brit Hume discussed when it would be appropriate to use the N-word. Carlson and Hume agreed that an overwhelming “wave of political correctness” was silencing too much speech, including the ability to say the N-word in some contexts. Hume added that because “America is a compassionate country,” being a victim is “kind of a good deal” and therefore people “go around applying for victim status.” Carlson agreed with the statement.

February 21, 2018[111]: Carlson promoted Minds.com, a social media platform full of bigotry. Carlson hosted Bill Ottman, the co-founder of Minds.com, who claimed that tech giants were seeking to destroy his company by censoring his site. AdSense, Google’s advertising platform, was banning his site for its bigoted content that included Holocaust denialism, the celebration of swastikas, and racist memes.

February 28, 2018[112]: Carlson fearmongered that "foreign citizens will be electing our political leaders" if undocumented people were given access to basic ID cards. While shilling for voter ID laws (which disenfranchise minority and elderly voters), Carlson criticized Chicago for an initiative to provide IDs for undocumented immigrants. Carlson went on to describe the Democratic Party as “the party of foreign voters now, many of them illegal.” Studies have shown[113] this is not a serious concern regarding election integrity.

March 7, 2018[116]: Carlson repeated his personal conspiracy theory that Democrats are encouraging non-citizens to vote in order to win elections. He claimed that Democrats want “a brand new electorate from a different foreign country,” and fearmongered that Democrats were “making it easier for illegal immigrants to register to vote.”

March 13, 2018[117]: Carlson defended an extremist YouTuber after she was barred from entering the U.K. Carlson defended American extremist YouTuber Brittany Pettibone and her “identitarian” boyfriend Martin Sellner -- who wants to preserve[118] “ethno cultural identity” in Europe -- after the U.K. authorities[119] refused them entry in the country, citing their “planned activities” that would “bear a serious threat to the fundamental interests of society.” Carlson attacked the U.K., framing the refusal as evidence that it was a country that “hates itself, its heritage, and its own people.” Pettibone, a well-known “alt-right” troll[120], has appeared on white supremacist YouTube channel Red Ice TV[95], and has pushed conspiracy theories like “white genocide” and “Pizzagate,” according to Right Wing Watch[121].

March 14, 2018[122]: Carlson blamed immigration for reducing “attractiveness” of American men. In a monologue for his “Men in America” series that ran during Women’s History Month[123], Carlson cited a “well regarded study” he failed to identify to claim immigration leads to wage decline, which then reduces “the attractiveness of men as potential spouses thus reducing fertility and especially marriage rates.”

April 2, 2018[126]: Regularguest Mark Steyn promoted a “stunningly racist” anti-immigrant French novel on Carlson’s show. While appearing as a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Mark Steyn, who frequently guests hosts the show when Tucker is out, praised Jaen Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints, a novel that has been accurately described[127] as “a favorite racist fantasy of the anti-immigrant movement” and “revered by white supremacists[128].” Steyn had previously cited the novel in a prior appearance on Fox News, when he asked[129] if The Camp of the Saints was “playing out simply incrementally with smaller boats” across Europe.

April 3, 2018[130]: Carlson claimed Mexico is “far more racist country” than the U.S. While hosting Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos, Carlson attacked Mexicans who criticize the idea of a border wall, saying, “It's a little much for the offspring of conquistadors to be saying, ‘You're racist if you want a border. By the way, when we get there, we deserve affirmative action.’”

April 6, 2018[131]: Carlson agreed with a guest who claimed “lack of socialization” leads Black teenagers to commit murder at a higher rate than whites. Claiming an Obama-era policy that meant to close racial gaps in discipline enforcement was to blame for disruptive behavior in classrooms, frequent[132]Black Lives Matter-basher[133] Heather Mac Donald saidthat the “same lack of socialization” among Black teenagers led them to commit violent crime at higher rates than white peers. Carlson called her claims “exactly the point,” adding that the Obama policy was “purely ideological and not rooted in reality at all.”

April 6, 2018[134]: Carlson gave frequentguest and notoriously racist[135] columnist Katie Hopkins a platform to call for profiling young Black men in London, U.K. Following a spate of stabbings in London, Carlson invited bigoted columnist Katie Hopkins -- who has advocated[135] for military forces to evacuate homeless people in Los Angeles, CA -- on his show to comment on the situation. Hopkins repeatedly referred to “Black gangs,” saying they are “killing each other.” She also endorsed “profiling” and said, “We need to quadruple our stop and search efforts.”

April 18, 2018[136]: Carlson compared affirmative action in colleges and universities to Jim Crow policies. Carlson characterized “the average admissions office” in colleges and universities as “every bit as race conscious as any institution in the Jim Crow South, and far less transparent about it.”

April 24, 2018[137]: Carlson said that no one wants to live in Britain or Sweden because “they imported a bunch of people from a part of the world that doesn't share their values.” Carlson claimed immigration had brought to Great Britain, France, and Sweden “massive terror, crime, and disorder problems,” adding that terrorism was “a largely immigrant phenomena.”

April 27, 2018[138]: Carlson dismissed guest’s explanation that some Mexican immigrants come to the U.S. fleeing violence by saying that if Mexico is "such a dangerous country filled with so many violent people, why would we let any of them into our country?" While hosting Univision’s Enrique Acevedo, Carlson asked him why Americans wouldn’t “be terrified” to “let [Mexicans] in” the United States, after Acevedo cited safety as one of the reasons Mexican immigrants flee their country.

May 16, 2018[143]: Carlson begged his guest to say something racist. While criticizing a University of Colorado graduate certificate program in diversity and social justice that offered students credit if they held “witnessing whiteness workshop” in their hometowns, Carlson called on his guest “to be honest and make a negative generalization about any other racial or ethnic group” besides white people.

June 18, 2018[144]: Carlson accused people speaking up against the government detaining children in cages at the border of just wanting to "change your country forever." Carlson also dismissed criticisms against Trump’s family separation policy[145], arguing that the costs of immigration are “entirely on you” and if you complain about it “they will call you ‘Hitler.’”

July 5, 2018[146]: While criticizing a Congolese immigrant for protesting Trump’s policies, Carlson characterized the Congo as a “war-ravaged hellscape, a country noted for mass rape and cannibalism.” He also asserted that Democrats were "plotting, in effect, a coup" through immigration policy, accusing immigrant advocates of “lying” when they say they care about “civil rights.”

July 16, 2018[147]: Carlson downplayed Russian election interference by claiming Mexico is "routinely interfering in our elections by packing the electorate" through immigration.

July 17, 2018[148]: Carlson fearmongered that “Latin American countries are changing election outcomes here by forcing demographic change on this country.” Carlson also claimed “Latin Americans clean houses of elites living in Washington, D.C., and “watch their kids” and that’s why the establishment doesn’t regard immigrants as “enemies.”

July 24, 2018[149]: Carlson characterized "hate speech" as "a made-up category designed to gut the First Amendment and shut you up." Carlson also mocked an anti-Nazi poem written after[150] the Holocaust.

July 26, 2018[151]: Carlson accused immigration advocates of objecting to hateful rhetoric against immigrants because "you're attacking their housekeeper." Carlson also characterized immigrants as a “serf class” imported to serve immigration advocates.

July 30, 2018[152]: Carlson suggested a permanent resident guest he assumed was undocumented was lucky he wasn’t having him taken out by force for criticizing the immigration system. Carlson attempted to shut down his guest Cesar Vargas, a previously undocumented lawyer, by saying, “Don’t hit me with the race crap.” He then tried to dismiss Vargas’ arguments by claiming he’s from a country “controlled by the conquistadors.” Carlson also said that Vargas had some chutzpah by “sitting here illegally and we’re not reporting you or having you like, taken out by force,” a point at which Vargas had to explain he in fact was a green card holder.

July 31, 2018[153]: Carlson said that opposition to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) violates “a basic principle of Anglo-American civilization.” Carlson described ICE -- the agency seizing undocumented immigrants and terrorizing communities[154] -- as representing an “ancient” and “basic principle of Anglo-American civilization” and bemoaned that those opposing the agency are protecting people “who shouldn't be here in the first place.”

August 3, 2018[158]: Carlson claimed, “There is no history of racism against Koreans here, that’s just not true. Certainly not by white people, anyway.” Carlson attacked New York Times’ Sarah Jeong over old tweets he took out of context[159], claiming they were “making sweeping claims about an entire racial group, all of them angry.” Carlson also vehemently denied there was any racism against Koreans (Jeong is Korean-American). He then suggested Jeong couldn’t be oppressed because she had gone to Harvard. He also called her “kind of dumb … totally mediocre,” and wondered how she had gotten into Harvard Law School “as a dumb person.” Carlson asked if Jeong attacking “the race of” his children meant that he could “attack all Asians.”

August 13, 2018[160]: Carlson dismissed the threat of extremism because "white supremacy is not ubiquitous in America” and, therefore, “it's not a crisis. It's not even a meaningful category." In the context of the second white supremacist Unite the Right rally[161] in Charlottesville -- held on the anniversary of the first one -- Carlson referred to media reports about rallies as “hyperventilating press coverage” and said that people who are concerned about the white supremacist movement in America are “either delusional or trying to control you with fear, likely both.”

August 14, 2018[162]: Carlson attacked refugees for using food assistance and took issue with recognizing children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. as U.S. citizens. Citing a study by the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies, Carlson said refugees are “living off of taxpayers largesse.” Then, complaining that undocumented immigrants who have children in the U.S. can get government aid for their American children, Carlson suggested that it “might not be the case” that birthright citizenship is mandated by the Constitution.

August 22, 2018[164]: Carlson used white nationalist talking points to again fearmonger about “race-based land seizures” in South Africa. Carlson described land reform in South Africa -- a program to redistribute unequal land ownership that is a legacy of apartheid -- as “literally the definition of racism.” He neglected to mention that the lands had been forcefully taken from Black South Africans during apartheid. Trump tweeted in response to the segment[165] that he would be directing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look into the matters. White supremacists celebrated the segment[166] and Trump’s tweet, as they have long taken South African politics out of context to serve their narrative of white oppression..

September 10, 2018[173]: Carlson doubled down on his attacks against diversity in America, citing “E Pluribus Unum.” Carlson returned to the topic of diversity only to double down on his position that it is not a strength, claiming that “E Pluribus Unum” meant that having less differences were “the source of our national strength.”

September 11, 2018[174]: Carlson commemorated the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks by fearmongering about immigration, saying, “The real threats we face today may be from within.” Carlson warned his audiences about the threat of American leaders “who hate the country they govern so much that they seek to make American citizenship irrelevant.” He also hypothesized that if he hated a country, he would “open its doors to anyone who wanted to come here and demand nothing in return.”

September 14, 2018[175]: Carlson said America “was a better country” when it was less diverse. While hosting Univision’s Enrique Acevedo, Carlson ranted about increased immigration, saying that when he was born “it was fine, it was nice, it was a better country than it is now in a lot of ways.” After Acevedo asked him which metrics he was referring to, Carlson said, “It was a more cohesive country.” Acevedo put his response in context asking, “It was a less diverse country, maybe?”

September 18, 2018[176]:Carlson claimed that Democrats’ willingness to hear sexual misconduct reports against then-nominee to Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh was equivalent to sexism and racism. While dismissing the sexual misconduct reports against Kavanaugh, Carlson portrayed those willing to hear Christine Blasey Ford -- who said a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school -- as blaming all men, “every single one of them, because they are men.” He then equated the willingness to believe women’s testimonies of sexual assault with blaming all men, suggesting it was similar to racism.

September 28, 2018[177]: Carlson asserted that the Kavanaugh hearings had exposed “race hatred” toward white people. Guest Harmeet Dhillon asserted in relation to the Kavanaugh hearings that “it has become fashionable now to beat up on white men, and whites more generally.” She went on to compare the treatment of white men in academia to apartheid, saying, “It's apartheid on our college campuses.” Carlson agreed, claiming “race hatred” was going to “encourage some kind of conflict.”

October 1, 2018[178]: Carlson claimed Kavanaugh reports are about punishing white people. He said that the reports that Kavanaugh had engaged in sexual misconduct were “not about Brett Kavanaugh at this point” but about “punishing everyone who looks like Brett Kavanaugh.”

October 8, 2018[182]: Carlson compared Democrats to the genocidal “Hutu leaders in Rwanda.” Carlson claimed that activist Tom Steyer was instigating “tribal warfare posing as democracy” by saying, “Kavanaugh was installed by a specific racial group in order to hurt and disempower every other racial group in America.” He continued by claiming that was “exactly the kind of things that Hutu leaders in Rwanda were saying in the early 1990s.”

October 8, 2018[183]: Carlson said Indigenous Peoples Day is a message to "normal people" that "you don't have the right to defend yourself." While criticizing places calling for Indigenous Peoples Day in a fight against the historical erasure of indigenous populations, Carlson suggested that the push to not celebrate Christopher Columbus was a message to “normal people” that “you don’t have the right to defend yourself.”

October 10, 2018[184]: Carlson claimed California is descending into “the kind of place that Donald Trump wouldn’t want immigration from.” Carlson compared California to “third word countries” while his guest Victor Davis Hanson suggested that the state was medieval because of an inflow of immigrants “without English.”

October 12, 2018[185]: Carlson compared CNN’s Don Lemon to 1960s segregationists. After Lemon criticized a meeting[186] between rapper Kanye West and Trump, Carlson attacked Lemon, claiming he talked like people who “defended racial segregation in the American South.”

October 15, 2018[187]: Carlson laughed at the mention of immigrant “babies in cages” as his guest brought up Trump’s family separation policies. As Carlson’s guest Richard Goodstein, a former adviser of Hillary Clinton, referenced Trump’s family separation policies by stating the administration had a history of “locking up babies[188] in cages[189],” Carlson minimized the inhumane policy by openly laughing.

October 24, 2018[190]: Carlson tells Dave Rubin that he would be more sympathetic towards “Black people or Hispanics” if they were “getting pushed around” like people in the Midwest. While appearing as a guest on YouTube’s The Rubin Report, Carlson told host Dave Rubin that he had greater sympathy for “the lone guy who's getting pushed around,” and claiming that “the least popular group in America lives in the middle-west and they have kind of antiquated social attitudes and they have very little economic power and they're overweight and everyone hates them.”

October 29, 2018[191]: Carlson uses synagogue massacre to attack Trump critics for using the “language of holy war.” Following the massacre[192] of 11 Jewish people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, Carlson glazed over the attack to dog-whistle about Gab[193], a social media platform used by the alleged shooter that is an online “haven for white nationalists.” He claimed that journalists covering Gab’s connection to the shooting are committing “moral blackmail,” and said, “They want to take charge of what you are allowed to say and think … by blaming you and your opinions for the crime.”

November 28, 2018[194]: Carlson says the United States needs “an honest adult conversation” about “what the next 100 years looks like demographically.” In an interview with former Fox personality and current U.S. Ambassador to Germany Rick Grenell, Carlson said the U.S. needs “an honest adult conversation” about demographics and implied that immigration radicalizes native citizens because the media are “lying to the population.”

December[196] 5, 2018[196]: Carlson claims California was a “middle-class paradise” until “low-skilled immigration overwhelmed” the state. Carlson claimed that the source of policy problems in California “is pretty simple -- low-skilled immigration overwhelmed” the state. He said, “A hundred years ago, immigrants came to California for opportunity, and now they come for the benefits.” He also attacked immigrants working in Silicon Valley’s tech sector.

December[197] 13, 2018[197]: Carlson says immigration makes America “poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.” He claimed “our leaders demand that you shut up and accept” immigration “even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.” More than 24 advertisers have left Carlson’s show[198] following this comment.

December[199] 17, 2018[199]: After advertisers flee his show, Carlson doubles down on claim that immigration makes the U.S. “poorer and dirtier.” Carlson doubled down on the comments after the advertiser exodus began, saying his critics didn’t listen to what he said and “they want us just to mouth the empty platitudes and move on.”

January 9, 2019[200]: Carlson attacks corporate diversity policies as “racial discrimination” and calls for a Justice Department crackdown. He chastised the Justice Department for not using civil rights laws to prosecute corporations using pro-diversity policies and invoked Alex Jones as an example of a victim of discrimination on tech platforms.

January 16, 2019[201]: Tucker Carlson complained that white people are the real victims of racism. While asking rhetorical questions about “what would a racist do,” Carlson said a “racist” would support affirmative action-style programs that he described as “race-based retribution.”

January 16, 2019[202]: Carlson ignored Rep. Steve King’s comments about white supremacy except to attack the media’s coverage of it. After Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asked[203] when the terms “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization” became “offensive” in an interview with The New York Times, Carlson ignored the story about his regular guest except to reprimand MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace for saying that King’s comments do “not have a parallel on the left.”

January 29, 2019[204]: Tucker Carlson and guest warn that migrant caravans full of disease like scabies are headed to the border. After a guest claimed that a wave of Central American migrants were coming to America and bringing “a whole litany of different communicable, very serious diseases,” Carlson said, “We need to bring all of this awesomeness you describe into the neighborhoods of people making these policies and maybe they’ll have a different view of them.”

February 1, 2019[205]: When pressed about the racism of Rep. Steve King, Carlson said at least “didn’t call for an ethnostate.” A few weeks after white supremacist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) questioned when the terms “white nationalist, white supremacist, [and] Western civilization” became offensive in an interview with The New York Times, Carlson said at least he “didn’t call for an ethnostate.”

February 6, 2019[206]: Carlson likened Stacey Abrams’ stance on diversity to the Jim Crow South. He said that unifying a party based on opposition to a group because of skin color"“worked for Democrats in the Jim Crow South for about a hundred years and that’s why they still do it,” and he said Stacey Abrams’ pro-diversity agenda means Democrats are “telling Americans they must hate their neighbors for the color of their skin.”

February 7, 2019[207]: Carlson staked out an anti-abortion agenda motivated by white supremacist ideology. He has developed a bizarre talking point about “the real reason our elites so enthusiastically support abortion. It doesn’t set you free; it won’t make you happier. But it will make companies more profitable and that’s what matters most to them. Pro-choice means pro-corporate.” He said the goal is to trap women into becoming “more dutiful, obedient workers.” White nationalists Richard Spencer and Faith Goldy have expressed similar sentiments.

February 19, 2019[208]: Carlson denied racial income inequality exists and claimed that “it’s untrue that the darker you are the more oppressed you are.”

February 21, 2019[209]: Carlson intentionally distorted the substance of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s universal child care proposal and claimed that there’s “no doubt” it will be used “to justify more immigration.” Carlson said Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) vision of “the American dream is outsourcing [children’s] upbringing to government caretakers while their parents scurry back to work,” saying the Democrats will “outsource parenting” the way “they outsourced farm labor and yard work.”

February 22, 2019[210]: Carlson used the Jussie Smollett news cycle to downplay the prevalence of hate crimes. Despite FBI data that show[211] hate-related incidents are on the rise in the United States, Carlson claimed “there aren’t that many hate crimes occurring in the country … so they have to make them up.”

February 26, 2019[212]: Carlson increasingly aligned himself with an extreme anti-transgender rights movement that has ties to white supremacist groups. Carlson hosted a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or “TERF,” after her appearance on an anti-trans panel[213] at the Heritage Foundation[214]. Leaders in the TERF movement in the U.K. have ties to holocaust deniers and anti-Muslim extremist Tommy Robinson.

February 26, 2019[215]: Tucker Carlson defended Alex Jones, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, and the white nationalist website VDare. VDare[216] was founded by white nationalist Peter Brimelow[217]. The site regularly publishes racist and xenophobic articles and advocates for the racial supremacy of white people.

February 28, 2019[218]: Carlson claimed outrage over Trump’s response to the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville was “fraudulent, entirely manufactured by the left and its servants in the media.” Nearly two years after neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville and killed a counterprotester, Carlson again defended Trump’s response to the crisis.

March 8, 2019[219]: Leaked chat messages show members of white supremacist group Identity Evropa are obsessed with Tucker Carlson. Leaked chats from a Discord server[220] reportedly populated by active members of white supremacist group Identity Evropa credited Carlson with “normalizing 80% of [Identity Evropa’s] talking points.”

March 11, 2019[221]: In unearthed audio, Tucker Carlson used white nationalist rhetoric and made racist statements. In audio uncovered by Media Matters, Carlson’s appearances on the shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge’s show between 2006 and 2011 included remarks in which he referred to Iraqis as “semiliterate primitive monkeys” and claimed “white men” created civilization, among other things. As a result of these revelations Carlson again experienced a debilitating advertiser exodus[222]. Carlson’s white supremacist fans organized a support campaign[223] for the troubled host.

March 15, 2019[225]: After the Christchurch massacre, Tucker dog-whistled about free speech. Carlson targeted the “censorship class” which “drives forbidden ideas underground, where they fester and explode.”

March 19, 2019[226]: Carlson said that “a ton of intermarriage and even more immigration” means America is “actually not a very racist country.”

March 20, 2019[227]: Carlson claimed immigration is a drain on the American economy and advocated a tax on remittances sent to other countries.

April 1, 2019[228]: On CNN, Derek Johnson, whose father founded the white nationalist website Stormfront, said his family watches Carlson “because they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have.”

April 2, 2019[229]: Carlson: “A vested interest in changing the population” is driving immigration policy. This talking point plays to the white supremacist scare tactic of claiming there is an insidious conspiracy to produce a “great replacement[230]” of white people.

April 3, 2019[231]: Carlson: “Mexico is a hostile power that is seeking to undermine our country and sovereignty.”

April 4, 2019[232]: Carlson: Immigration will “change this country completely and forever.” Carlson again decried immigrants as a burden on society in a monologue comprised of a series of bad-faith rhetorical questions and described anti-racist activists pushing back against growing anti-immigrant sentiment as “the endless drone of self-righteous children.”

April 5, 2019[233]: Carlson likened presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s acknowledgement of white privilege to “Maoist tribunals.” He posited that “by summer you can picture Beto wearing a paper dunce cap with ‘white privilege’ scrawled across it in red letters as a warning to other would-be counterrevolutionaries.”

April 9, 2019[234]: Carlson claimed that “we’re being invaded” at the southern border and “this is how countries collapse.”

April 9, 2019[235]: Carlson said acknowledging the voter suppression epidemic is “a terror tactic” used “to whip up racial hysteria.” He said the idea that there is voter suppression in America is “the opposite of the truth.”

April 10, 2019[236]: Carlson said calling out white nationalism is a racist attack on white people and “exactly how you destroy a country.” He said that calling out white nationalists is “attacking people for their race.”

April 23, 2019[237]: Carlson went out of his way to endorse an obscure proposal by the far-right government of Hungary. While hosting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on his show, Carlson praised Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s proposal to exempt women with four or more children from paying income tax for life and give them other benefits to assist in child rearing as an example of a country taking “pro-family policies seriously” and called it “a great idea” to address Hungary’s “low birth rate” without “immigration and importing new people.”

April 30, 2019[238]: He claimed The View inspires white nationalist terrorists. After a guest brought up the rise in white nationalist terrorism under Trump, Carlson asked if he had “to attack white people” and said of conversations on the TV show The View, “You don’t think that radicalizes people?”

May 3, 2019[239]: Carlson said banning Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos, and other extremists from Facebook amounts to “fascism.”

This post was originally posted on October 28, 2018; it was last updated on May 21, 2019.